But It’s So Hard to Choose Favourites
My reader’s heart and mind holds different stories dearest
What I hold dear is consistent. But dearest? That’s another matter. On any given day, a favourite could change. Perhaps I am craving lyrical prose. Or spare and lean narrative. Maybe I ache to see injustice exposed. Or have someone witness an everyday miracle, like a bloom or an insect. Some days, it is the ink and the lettering on a page. Other days, the steady pace of unillustrated pages.
Some of the stand-out reads and favourites from my 2022.
Many of my favourites are rooted in nostalgia.
That’s complicated.
Many of my favourites are as much about writing as they are about reading. Here’s one to get you started.
Recent Bookchat
About Favourite pages that I’ve been turning
(For recent bookchat across all categories, visit Home)
Novellas in November: Since Last Year #NovNov
Hosted by Cathy and Rebecca with weekly themes and a link collector, the first week of this event invites participants to “tell us about any novellas you
November 2023, In My Bookbag (also, L.M. Montgomery)
In November, Naomi and Sarah are hosting a readalong for The Story Girl, so the last time I packed up my bookbag, I stuck in my copy
Autumn 2022, In My Stacks (with #MARM plans)
As you might guess, many kilometres north now, I’ve found that the weather grows cold more quickly. It was a shock to change the bedding, to the
Summer 2022, In My Reading Log
Even though I am reading more than I was when we first arrived up here, my habits remain changed. I finished the new Thomas King—Thumps DreadfulWater—mystery. This
June 2022: Read Indigenous (4 of 4)
The first and second posts in this series were filled with a variety of forms and styles, and last time there was talk of poetry, more mythology,
June 2022: Read Indigenous (1 of 4)
At first, I thought of arranging these four posts into categories—one for poetry and another for short stories, that kind of thing—but instead I have included an
Margaret Atwood Reading Month 2021 #MARM2021
As anyone who participates in bookish events online knows, November is an exceptionally busy month for themed reading; if Margaret Atwood had been born in any other
Autumn 2021: In My Reading Log (Part One)
This year I’ve been reading more non-fiction than usual. It’s not that I’ve been trying, it’s only that I’ve allowed my curiosity to access my holds queue.
A 2020 Favourite
Sometimes you know a book will make your list, even early in the reading year
“You know when you hear a piece of music once, you haven’t heard it properly, you want to hear it again. A well-made book will reward you in exactly the same way as music does, in that you will understand and love a piece. You’ll feel the cadence and depth of it and hear things in it all the time. If you pay it a little more attention, it will reward you, like all art. Like everything, actually.”
“I am even a bit afraid of the way I read. It’s like mother was when Rowley was coming, eating all the crusts off the bread. She just couldn’t stop eating bread. She’d set a loaf on the table and start cutting all its sides off, then turn it over and carve its bottom off. Then she’d say ‘It’s really dreadful the way I’m eating bread,’ and her arm would come reluctantly out and she’d start carving little bits off the slopes, until the bread stood all naked and white. And after a while she’d say, ‘Oh, dear, I’d love another crust.’”